The Ledger

1.11 Out of the Half-Light: Best Episode Ever?

In this amazingly well-written episode (1.11), Logan and Greevey investigate the apparent abduction, rape, and assault of a young black woman, but their efforts are hindered by a leading black politician who says he is trying to protect her rights. Stone and Robinette must confront, and then work around, the politician to uncover the truth.

The episode closely mirrors the famous case of Tawana Brawley, whose interests were represented by Al Sharpton during the controversy following her allegations that she was raped by a group of men, including a white cop.

Plot Summary

The episode begins in the parking lot of a housing project, where a few passers-by move on, and an older woman walking her dog discovers a young woman, Astria Crawford, under a pile of garbage, twitching, with epithets written on her skin. Greevey and Logan visit her at the hospital, where Astria is reluctant to open her eyes, and can't really speak. Eventually Logan gets her to open her eyes and interact with them. He gently asks her who did this to her, and she writes on his notepad: "White cops."

They talk to Astria's mother, who tells them Astria was dating a boy named Jordon Hill. The detectives track down Hill via a girlfriend of Astria named Fiona Hardison. Hill doesn't have much useful information, though he was the last known person to have seen her before she disappeared. In the meantime, Astria's family takes on an advisor, Ronald Eaton, a black Congressman from New York. The dets try to talk to Astria's parents, but they are upset that white police officers are investigating the crime, and they don't want to talk. Eaton demands that a photo lineup featuring all white police officers working on the Upper West Side be arranged so Astria can pick out her attackers. Logan and Greevey, lacking evidence, and the ability to talk directly to Astria, are starting become a bit sceptical about her story, but Logan eventually tells Greevey and Kragen that he feels Astria is being treated like a suspect, even though she's a victim. Kragen reveals that he's known Eaton since the time of Martin Luther King's assassination when Eaton (then known as Uhuru Eaton) occupied some buildings and demanded buses so that poor New Yorkers could attend MLK's funeral.

Logan and Greevey visit the alleged crime scene trying to find evidence, but they don't really come up with much. (While they're there, Logan mentions he's dating an NYU film student, and watched the Chaplin film Modern Times with her the previous night.)

Eaton, trying to protect the girl from charges that her story is a hoax, declares that an old church is a "sanctuary" and that she cannot be pursude there. He gives a passionate speech on the steps, to an assembled crowd of locals and journalists. He also says he has the names of the cops that committed the attack on Astria. Kragen arrives with Stone and the detectives at the scene and wants to send the dets in to talk to Astria. Stone twice tells Kragen he's making a big mistake, but Kragen is insistent and Greevey and Logan walk through the assembled journalists, declaring they are just there to talk to Astria, not remove her. They enter the church, where they find Astria and her parents. Eaton enters soon afterwards. Logan and Eaton get into a bit of an argument of racial issues and the system, and Astria gets increasingly emotional, eventually collapsing or throwing herself on the ground. She is taken away in an ambulance. Good move, Kragen.

Back at the office, Kragen and Stone get in an argument with raised voices, one of the louder arguments I've seen on the show. Stone, fed up with the NYPD's botched investigation, removes their authority to investigate and says, "This is no longer a police matter." That leaves it to Stone and Paul Robinette to figure out what really happened.

Stone tells Robinette that they have to disapprove a police cover-up of the alleged attack. Stone and Eaton meet at the hospital where Astria is staying to talk things over, but Eaton refuses to allow Stone and his investigators access to Astria. (This is ironic/hypocritical, because at this point, by not allowing access to the girl, it's Eaton, not Stone, who is responsible for the cover-up.) Eaton tells Stone what we've guessed all along: his interest in the case is not merely focused on the individual case. He wants to put the system on trial, and expose the biases in the NYC criminal justice enterprise. He tells Stone that he wants everyone's head on a platter, including Kragen's, the police commissioner's, and Stone's. Undeterred by this threat, Stone encounters the press in the hospital (apparently) and after a statement by Eaton, begins to assert publicly for the first time that Astria's story may be a hoax.

To prove this charge, Stone wants to set up a grand jury. Schiff agrees, but is cautious. As he continues to investigate, Stone finds that Astria's boyfriend, Hill, is now denying that he saw Astria during the period of time she was missing. It seems like Eaton has gotten to him and told him to change his story, but he won't admit it.

The grand jury proceeding (41 mins) takes place, but Stone still struggles to learn the truth. Astria's rape counselor (who has been a prominent figure throughout the episode) testifies that according to the usual indicators, it seems like Astria's story is a false allegation. Eaton then testifies about putting the system on trial. Stone threatens to charge him with obstruction of justice and Eaton walks off the stand (a move echoed by Jack McCoy years later, by the way). After some discussion, a judge places Astria and her mother in contempt of court for refusing to testify. The judge reluctantly gives permission to Eaton to make a statement after the decision, and he starts to accuse her, a black woman, of selling out and being complicit in the cover-up. In a fantastic scene, she cuts him off and tears him a new one. Then she turns her attention to Astria and her family and tells them that they have received terrible counsel from their attorney and Eaton.

At this point, Robinette essentially takes ownership of the case and the episode. Making some progress, but not much, Robinette resolves to get to the bottom of things, and the only way he can is to get someone to talk. He seeks out a black priest who is apparently an old friend and asks him to serve as an intermediary between him and Eaton. Seeing how corrupt and politicized everything has become, Robinette muses to the priest that he turned down a high-paying position on Wall Street to make a difference, and this is what has become of it.

In any case, talking to the priest works. It just so happens that Mrs. Crawford is one of his parishioners, and he arranges for her to meet with Robinette semi-secretly, out on the street. When she meets Robinette, she has a black eye, apparently given to her by her ill-tempered husband, Astria's father, and Robinette finally gets what appears to be the truth: She tells Robinette that Astria became pregnant with Hill's baby, and her father was demanding that she have the baby, because she is Catholic. According to Mrs. Crawford, Astria figured that if she told her parents she was raped, her parents would allow her to get an abortion.

Robinette begins to wrap things up: he confronts Mr. Crawford and threatens him with charges if there is any further violence directed toward Astria or her mom. Next, in perhaps the best scene in the show, Robinette confronts Eaton at a meeting in an empty diner. Robinette apparently threatened Eaton with charges, and Eaton retorts, "If what you're telling me is true, you might be the most simple-hearted , down-the-river n***er to ever wear a tie." But Robinette doesn't fold, telling Eaton the Astria's story is a hoax and he should let it go. Eaton asks, "Does it make a difference" whether the story is true or not, and again accuses Robinette of being complicit in a corrupt system. Robinette replies that "at times the system stinks, but don't tell me for a minute that your self-aggrandizing polarization is going solve the problem." Eaton says Robinette is casting his vote for order over justice, and that he's choosing a negative piece over positive piece, a phrase he borrows from MLK. Robinette responds sharply, in the ep's finest moment, "King walked with angels...You slide and slime on your belly to get what you want." Eaton puts on his sunglasses (even though it's night), and that ends their conversation.

Stone tells Schiff he's dropped the cross-complaint against Eaton and Astria, which Schiff is disappointed about, but as they leave, Stone tells Robinette that Schiff will eventually decide it was the right thing to do. "He'll probably love it in the morning," he says.

Out on the street, Stone asks Robinette, "Do you think of yourself as a black lawyer or a lawyer's who's black?" Robinette immediately replies, brilliantly, "It depends on the context." (Robinette references this in a later episode, I think in his last episode at the end of Season 2.) Robinette and Stone start walking down the street together, and then the camera follows Robinette as a distance as he walks off on his own.

Analysis

Coming soon.

In the meantime, here is an extensive amount of information on the Tawana Brawley case. I will discuss the many similarities between the Brawley case and this episode some day.

Posted by adm at April 27, 2004 10:57 PM

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